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“Do we?” I finally let him pull me up. He turns me to face him, hands firmly grasped around my elbows.
“I meant what I said on that card. I’ll do anything to make this work between us.” He exhales a frustrated breath, letting go of my arms and taking a step back, tucking his hands into his front pockets. “We can take it one day at a time. Today, it’s pizza.”
It almost seems too easy for him to be so open about his feelings. But I think if I was on his end, if I was the one that did the hurting instead of the one who got hurt, I’d be a little more confident in myself, too.
“Daddy, I hungry!” Allie’s voice calls out from behind us, and we hear the scrape of the chair on the floor as she starts climbing out of her booster seat.
“Please,” he whispers one more time, the look in his eyes ripping me in two.
“I’ll stay on one condition.”
“Anything, name it.”
I take a deep breath, forcing myself to look him in the eyes as I make my request, “I don’t want to hear about her. I don’t know if you were going to mention it, to explain to me what happened, but I can’t do it. Not now.” He hadn’t made any indication that he was going to try to talk to me about the past, but if he’s still the same guy inside, he’s going to try to be the mature one and clear the air, and I won’t have it.
“I think it’d help the situation if I told you about her, she—”
I raise a hand to stop him, wincing at the few words that made it out of his mouth.
“Please, Emmett. Let me have this one.”
Regretfully, he nods, promising he won’t mention her until I’m ready, so I slide my arm out of my jacket, and he reaches for it, shaking it once before hanging it back up on the hook. With my boots placed once again on the corner of the door mat, I let him lead me back into the kitchen and to the table, Allie eyeing us both, surely wondering what the delay is on her pizza.
Emmett pulls out the chair across from her, ushering me to sit and waiting until I do before returning to the kitchen to dish up the pizza. He sets the plates down in front of us; me and Allie with black olives and green peppers, his with a meat lover's special. And though he already told me she loves black olives, when I see her start to peel each one off her slice and pop them into her little mouth, I still laugh in surprise.
Emmett comes back with a small cup of milk for her, and without a word, he sets an ice-cold can of orange soda right in front of me.
The clink of the aluminum hitting the table makes me look up, and I eye the can for a few moments before looking up at him. He pulls his chair back and sits down, taking a giant half-the-slice bite of pizza, refusing to look at me. But when he wipes the corner of his mouth, I see the hint of a smirk leftover.
“Frozen Two?”
As soon as Allie asks, Emmett falls back in his chair with a groan.
“Baby girl, we’ve watchedFrozen Twoevery single night this week. Aren’t you sick of it yet?”
She purses her lips, knowing he is wrapped around her tiny little finger. “Noooo,” she says sweetly. “Frozen Two,pease.”
“I think we should let Jenna choose the movie; she’s our guest after all.”
I can barely make it through pizza, and Emmett wants me to stay for a movie, too?
“Frozen Twosounds good to me,” I tell him as I wink to Allie. “I’ve never seen the first one. Or the third. Is there a third?”
Both Emmett and Allie gasp at one another before looking back at me.
“You’ve never seenFrozen?”
The shocked expression on his face is priceless. He’s acting as if I asked him who the president is, or what city we are in. I don’t exactly have a lot of friends who are in the market to sit and watch Disney movies.
He looks at me for another minute, smiling ear to ear before turning to Allie. “Well, if Jenna is willing to stay and watch a movie with us, we can watchFrozen.”
Traitor.
Allie gasps and looks up at me, eyes wide and hopeful. There isn’t a chance in hell I’d be able to say no to that face.
“Frozenit is.”
~
